When I try to launch TF2 (or Portal, or Left 4 Dead), it gives me a "Failed to create D3D Device!" error and closes the game. I also cannot open older Source games, like HL2DM, which start to load and then stop without an error message. 2-D or older games, like Peggle and Call of Duty, do work fine though.

When I try to run a recent 3-D game, like the Bioshock demo, Windows says that it has experienced an error an needs to close shortly after the initial loading image comes up.

I've spent the last two hours looking up this problem, and have re-updated my Nvidia drivers, and my .net stuff, and my Steam client. I've tried running in dx80 and dx81, and even with -gl and everything Google, Steam support, and the Steam forums can find me.

I've been gone this past week and updated a few programs upon returning, which could feasibly be related to this problem.

I've spent the last two hours looking up this problem, and have re-updated my Nvidia drivers, and my .net stuff, and my Steam client. I've tried running in dx80 and dx81, and even with -gl and everything Google, Steam support, and the Steam forums can find me.

I did update my drivers, and there hasn't been a DirectX update in three months...

I tried both of those and I'm still getting the exact same problem. :/

Oh, and if it's relevant, Fraps.exe always encounters an error and needs to close when I start up my computer, which it has never done before now. So basically there's an error before even launching hl2.exe.

I did install some really old and incompatible eDimensional 3D drivers a week and a half ago, but that in-and-of itself shouldn't be causing any problems. I completely uninstalled it after learning it didn't work and tested TF2, which worked fine. My only thought is that I maybe somehow messed with some deeper-level stuff than drivers, perhaps accidentally deleting something in my registry or some .net stuff... I guess I'll look into my registry. Ugh.

I think that in your case, because the problem's probably a simple driver glitch, you could just replace your current drivers with older ones (like the ones that came on a CD with your card) and that should fix it.

I just did a system restore to two weeks ago, and now everything is working fine. All that shows is that the problem was with something affected by System Restore, which isn't very helpful... Well, at least there's a solution that will work.

I did install some really old and incompatible eDimensional 3D drivers a week and a half ago, but that in-and-of itself shouldn't be causing any problems. I completely uninstalled it after learning it didn't work and tested TF2, which worked fine.